Providing hands-on activities for concepts which students struggle to grasp has long been a challenge in undergraduate education, often particularly in two-year institutions. As part of my research, I use the Open-source Pseudopotential Interface/Unification Module (OPIUM) software to design and integrate an interactive computational exercise into my first-year chemistry courses. This exercise provided students with early exposure to computational chemistry, and assisted them in gaining a greater understanding of the Aufbau principle. Due to the two different groups of students, two parts of the activity were designed. The first, focuses on only electron filling, ground state configuration identification and the Aufbau principle along with related trends. The second activity incorporates the first activity, but includes the additional topics of ionization energy, order of electron removal, and orbital hybridization. This exercise promoted a greater understanding of the Aufbau principle without a reliance on rote memorization, and for the students participating in the both components were able to see how quantum mechanics is related to numerous concepts in chemistry.

A hands-on approach to the aufbau principle through computational chemistry

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.